News Blast - November 4, 2016

Steve's 16-year-old son, Brandon Rude, became ill over the summer and was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis late August. Since then he's spent more time in than out of the hospital. Steve has written updates, but without an office manager updates have not made it far.

His Ulcerative Colitis took a bad turn a few weeks back and he's headed into his first of 3 proctocolectomy surgeries today at 2:30 PST after several tries with medication failed. Jaynelle is with him and has not been checking emails often so please excuse our lack of online contact.

Everything has been placed on hold including the Nexus Newspaper and the Compendium. Once we get through this surgery and Brandon is back home Jaynelle will be able to help us move forward.

Please keep Brandon in your thoughts and prayers. He is currently 6' tall and only 105 pounds. Ulcerative Colitis prevents the body from absorbing nutrients, so not only is he underweight he is malnourished. Over the past 8 weeks he has also twice tested positive for Cryptosporidium which is a parasite that attacks the immune system.

We were lucky to have him at Phoenix Children's Hospital who has been just wonderful. The staff here is amazing and Brandon has been in good spirits.